Membership Retention in Scout Troops
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W o r l d S c i e n s s t i f e i r c g C n o Membership Retention in Scout Troops Liam Morland Online Course Developer Distance Education, University of Waterloo, Canada (Rersearch, experiences) 1 Introduction The headline of Scouts Canada’s annual report exclaimed in big letters “Membership is Climbing! ”. The report went on to praise the exciting programme Scouts Canada offers and to thank Scouters and others for making it all happen. That was in 1996, when membership rose to 231,042 members, an increase of 1% (Scouts Canada 1996:17). It was the first year of membership growth since 1981, but it was also the last. As of 2007, membership was 99,573. The 57% decline between 1996 and 2007 is not the full story. At the height of membership in 1965, Scouts Canada had 321,608 members consisting of 288,084 young people and 33,524 adults. At this time, the Beaver section did not exist; young people had to be eight years old before they could join. With Beavers removed for a proper comparison, 2007 youth membership was 52,674, a decline of 82% since 1965. This membership decline, both long-term and in recent years, is a pressing concern for Scouts Canada. Since Scouting is a non-formal educational movement for young people, fewer members means that Scouts Canada is further from achieving its mission. On a practical level, Scouts Canada spent $139 per youth member on staff salaries and benefits during 2006/2007 (Scouts Canada 2007:4). The total payroll expense reported in Scouts Canada’s annual reports has remained in the neighbourhood of $10 million since at least year 2000, despite massive membership loss during this time. Since Scouts Canada is funded primarily by membership fees, it faces the possibility of being unable to afford its bureaucracy as the number of fees collected diminishes. However, not all is dark. While membership is falling in general and groups are closing, some Scout groups are growing and vibrant. During 1999/2000, there was growth in approximately 900 groups, about one-quarter of groups at the time (Newsome 2001). This indicates that it is possible to run a Scout group with growing membership, but that few do so. Canada is not alone. Scouting in many countries around the world is experiencing membership decline. This study will provide a picture of how Scouts Canada programmes look in real life and it will identify what characteristics of Scout troops lead to high levels of retention of members. My hope is that the findings of this research will be used to bring growth to Scouting, both in Canada and around the world. World Scientific Congress 1 1.1 The Rise and Fall of Membership Let us begin by briefly examining Scouts Canada’s membership figures from over the years. Figure 1 shows the membership census of Scouts Canada starting in 1914, the year Scouts Canada was incorporated, and ending in 2007, the most recent year for which figures are available (Scouts Canada, various dates). These numbers are from Scouts Canada annual reports which I found on a visit to the excellent library in the Belleville Scout-Guide Museum in Belleville, Ontario. Figure 1: Scouts Canada’s Membership by section Scouts Canada’s core programme sections are currently Beavers (ages 5–7), Wolf Cubs (10–8), Scouts (11–14), Venturers (14–17), and Rovers (18–26). “Other Youth” refers to short-term, non-Scout Method programs run by Scouts Canada since 2001. The Venturer program started in 1965. Until then, the age range for Scouts covered roughly what is now covered by Scouts and Venturers. Beavers started in 1972, which opened membership to an age range that had never before been able to join. Data for Rovers and Adults begins in 1934. Some early year data was not available and is interpolated in the graphs that follow. The number of adults jumps up in 1983 when the membership census started to include “non- programme adults”. Absolute numbers before and after this date are not directly comparable. The peak of adult membership, whether or not one counts “non-programme adults”, was 1984, two decades after the peak of youth membership. There is a sudden drop in adult membership in 2002. That year, Scouts Canada undertook a major restructuring which upset many adults. Locally-elected Scout councils were replaced with centrally-appointed teams. In 2000, a new Scouts Canada bylaw had divided the membership into Ordinary Members, with no voting rights, and Voting Members, of which there were 100 across the country. The changes of 2002 took away from the Ordinary Members their remaining say in the selection of the Voting Members. The transition to a non-democratic, self-perpetuating governance structure was complete. World Scientific Congress World Scientific Congress 2 The rate of membership decline has increased. The average rate of decline for five years ending 1992 was 1.5%; for 1997, 2.3%; for 2002, 6.7%; and for 2007, 9.1%. The Centenary of the Scout Movement was celebrated in 2007. That year had a decline of 3.1%, the smallest decline in a decade. This is likely due to the extensive media coverage of the Centenary and the Canadian Jamboree held that year. Figure 2: Scouts Canada’s Membership, stacked Figure 2 presents the membership data as a stacked graph. The second peak of membership, in 1981 or 1983, depending on how you count adults, is entirely due to the introduction of the Beaver programme. World Scientific Congress World Scientific Congress 3 Figure 3: Scouts Canada’s Membership, no Beavers Since the Beaver section opened membership to a new age range, a more clear picture of the rise and fall of membership can be gained by removing Beavers from the picture (see Figure 3). Put simply, membership rose until the 1960s and has fallen since. In 1968, Scouts Canada conducted a massive redesign of its programmes. It would be tempting to blame these changes for the ongoing decline. However, it is not that simple: The 1960s were a time of substantial social change in Canada, reflecting some of the changes in the United States of America. Scouting is not immune to changes in the wider society. When the Beaver section was formed, one of the hopes was that it would provide a steady supply of new members. It did provide a membership boost since young people can be members for longer. However, besides a short levelling-off of Cub membership decline in the late 1970s, there is no noticeable increase in the number of Cubs or Scouts. Beavers may have meant that young people join sooner, but it didn’t cause more people to join than would have otherwise. As I mentioned earlier, membership increased in 1996. This increase was felt in all five programme sections. Scouts and Rovers also increased the following year, but by much less. Why did this happen? The Wolf Cub programme was changed somewhat in 1995, but I don’t think these changes would have led to increases in all sections. However, something was happening in Canadian society. Canada is a federal country with 10 provinces. In the French- speaking Province of Québec, there has long been political movement which wanted Québec to leave Canada. In 1995, there was a referendum on independence in which the Québécois World Scientific Congress World Scientific Congress 4 voted, by the smallest of margins, to stay in Canada. The debate within Québec created an outpouring of patriotism across the country. This may have lead parents to sign up their children for Scouting, perceiving Scouting as a movement connected with patriotism. Scouts Canada was originally for males only. Females were permitted to join Rovers in 1971, Venturers in 1984, and the remaining programme sections in 1992. This was “local option co-ed Scouting”: individual units could choose whether or not to admit girls. In 1998, local option was removed and all sections were required to admit males and females equally. It is interesting to note that none of these changes in co-ed policy are readily apparent in the graphs, with the possible exception of the 1996 increase. Today, Scouts Canada’s youth membership is about 6% female. Figure 4 shows how the youth membership of Scouts Canada was divided between the various core programme section. The Beaver section rapidly and very smoothly grew to having a membership share about equal to that of the Cubs, then declined along with the Cubs. Figure 3: Scouts Canada’s Membership, no Beavers Since the Beaver section opened membership to a new age range, a more clear picture of the rise and fall of membership can be gained by removing Beavers from the picture (see Figure 3). Put simply, membership rose until the 1960s and has fallen since. In 1968, Scouts Canada conducted a massive redesign of its programmes. It would be tempting to blame these changes for the ongoing decline. However, it is not that simple: The 1960s were a time of substantial social change in Canada, reflecting some of the changes in the United States of America. Scouting is not immune to changes in the wider society. When the Beaver section was formed, one of the hopes was that it would provide a steady Figure 4: Scouts Canada’s Membership Section Share supply of new members. It did provide a membership boost since young people can be members for longer. However, besides a short levelling-off of Cub membership decline in the late 1970s, there is no noticeable increase in the number of Cubs or Scouts.